audi Arabia said Friday it was recalling its ambassador to Lebanon and giving Beirut’s envoy 48 hours to leave Riyadh, after “insulting” remarks made by a Lebanese minister on the Yemen war.

The kingdom ordered the “recall of the ambassador in Lebanon for consultations, and the departure of Lebanon’s ambassador to the kingdom within 48 hours”, over the “insulting” remarks made this week by Lebanon’s information minister, the foreign ministry said.

It also “decided to halt all Lebanese imports”, according to a statement.
audi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday had summoned Lebanon’s ambassadors over Information Minister George Kordahi’s criticism of the Riyadh-led military coalition fighting rebels in Yemen.

Kordahi said in a television interview that the Iran-backed Huthi rebels were “defending themselves… against an external aggression”, adding that “homes, villages, funerals and weddings were being bombed” by the coalition.

In the interview — filmed in August but aired on Monday — he also called the seven-year war in Yemen “futile” and said it was “time for it to end”.

Riyadh on Friday expressed “regret” at the deterioration in relations with Beirut, and said authorities would take “further measures”, without elaborating.
audi Arabia has stepped back from its former ally Lebanon in recent years, angered by the influence of Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, which is backed by its regional rival Iran.